Mashups, Education Style

Fellow Northern Voice organizer Brian Lamb has written an instructive and very readable (that is, comprehensible to laypersons) article about mashups and how they apply in educational contexts.

Educational technologists may wonder if “remix” or “content mashup” are just hipper-sounding versions of the learning objects vision that has absorbed so much energy from so many talented people—with mostly disappointing results. As Susan Metros stated in a 2005 EDUCAUSE Review article: “Learning objects have not fulfilled their promise of transforming education.” Little has changed since then to contradict that assertion.

Describing Brian merely as a ‘fellow Northern Voice organizer’ really doesn’t cut the mustard once you read his byline: “Manager of Emerging Technologies and Digital Content for The University of British Columbia’s Office of Learning Technology and is a Research Fellow with Utah State University’s Center for Open and Sustainable Learning.” You don’t want to attend court functions with Brian–they’re serving dessert by the time the servant’s done announcing his title.

I joke because, in actuality, Brian’s a very humble, self-effacing guy.